Fine Bindings

Adelaide: Corkwood Press 1999-2003 Special Editions 6 vols 8vo, 1999 Very Fine leather-bound matching set of all six of Len Beadell's often humorous autobiographical writings detailing his pioneering road-building projects throughout the Central Australian deserts on behalf of the Woomera Rocket Range. Each volume is beautifully bound in kangaroo leather, with gilt titles, gilt maps to covers, map end-papers, and illustrated with b&w and colour photographs and Len's original line drawings. A special limited edition of 50 copies of each volume, each volume offered here being no.41 of the series. Blast the Bush is autographed by Len's widow Anne Beadell, and his children, Connie Sue Beadell and Gary Beadell, after whom two of the great outback highways are named. Too Long in the Bush is also signed & inscribed by Anne Beadell, and Bush Bashers is signed and inscribed by Connie Sue Beadell. A magnificent set that does justice to Len Beadell's writings, and looks great on the shelf.

Paris: Thierry, Barbin et Trabouillet, 1697. Very Good. 4 x 6.5 inches (10 x 16.5 cm). Complete eight volume set. Full speckled calf leather bindings. Spines have five raised bands, red morocco title labels, compartments ornately decorated in gilt. Some marking and slight worming to boards. Spines rubbed with slight wear to head and foot. A couple of volumes have slight cracking to joints but all boards are firmly attached. Gilt decorated board edges and turn-ins. All page edges gilt, marbled endpapers. Very tight bindings in excellent overall condition. Clean pages throughout. French language. All 30 plates are present and in first class condition (one plate in Vol. V has been bound in upside down.) A rare and important early edition of Molière's works, reproducing the 1682 first collected edition. An excellent example, complete with all plates and in attractive contemporary bindings. Overall condition is Very Good. Size: 4 x 6.5 inches (10 x 16.5 cm). Hardback. Printed pages: [24] 309… Read More

London: George Virtue, 1840. First edition. 2 volumes bound in extra gilt-ornamental red full leather with panels, raised bands, all edge gilting, gilt edge decorations, colored endpapers, ribbon markers. Bookplate of former U.S. Senator and Congressman William L. Scott (Virginia Republican) on pastedown in each volume. Published London: George Virtue, 1840. Large 4to., 8 3/4" x 11", 140pp.,+map+66 engravings+engraved title; state A of volume 2, with contents page numbered, 106pp.,+53 engravings+engraved title. Magnificent views of the Eastern United States before industrialization altered the landscape. Bartlett was a skilled landscape artist with a keen eye. He traveled extensively in the U.S. and Canada. Internally fine with no toning or foxing, plates nearly immaculate under tissue guards. Joints and corners rubbed, front joint of one volume starting. Very good, near fine internally. 1st. Hard. Very Good/No Jacket, As Issued. Illus. by William H. Bartlett. 4to.

Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co. Ltd. London. 1907. Small 8vo. (6.2 x 4 inches). Fine early twentieth century full vellum hand painted binding. Fine binding decorated with a painted scene on the front cover depicting a woman and two children in a rustic garden scene, the spine is decorated with a matching design of a variety of painted flowers and the back cover has a single painted flower in the bottom left corner. Marbled endpapers. All edges gilt. The book is miss-titled in gilt and black on the spine reading 'The Christian Year' so the binder may have been working on more than one book at a time and got two mixed up. The binding is unsigned but similar to several made by the Royal School of Art Needlework around the same period and is in remarkably good condition, only some slight wear on the border of the front cover and the gilded bands on the spine-ends.

London: Sherwood, Gilbert & Piper. Simpkin, Marshall & Co. [1836 - 1840]. Two volumes, octavo, pp ix, (11), 402; viii, (16), 541, rather age-toned, slight marginal staining, the first title page is repaired and strengthened to its fore-edge, pages 305 - 346 in the first volume are slightly bruised to the fore-edge with resulting slight tears to a few of those pages, otherwise this set is clean and sound internally, recently bound in a very attractive black half calf and marbled boards, the spines with raised bands, panelled, blind-stamped. Presentation copy to Thomas Young, inscribed on the second title page "with the author's kind regards". RARE. [Hodgkin {1798 -1866} was a British physician, considered one of the most prominent pathologists of his time and a pioneer in preventive medicine. He is now best known for the first account of Hodgkin's disease, a form of lymphoma and blood disease, in 1832. Hodgkin's work marked the beginning of times when a pathologist was… Read More

The Nonesuch Press. London. 1924-27. FIVE VOLUMES. Tall 4to. (12.3 x 8.3 inches). Limited edition. One of 1000 sets printed on Japon vellum (The Apochrypha is one of 1250 copies) from a total edition of 1075 copies. The typography was arranged by Frances Meynell. Each volume decorated with copperplate engravings by Stephen Gooden, including the title pages. A lovely clean set finely bound in recent full black morocco, decorative gilt border to boards. Spines with raised bands, each with decorative gilt piping and ruling. Red title labels, gilt. Top edges gilt, others untrimmed. A beautiful set.

Cassell and Company. London. 1941-46. FIRST EDITIONS. 7 Volumes. 8vo. (8.7 x 5.6 inches). A complete set of first editions and 1st impressions of Churchill's war speeches. A few pages with light foxing but overall a clean and fine set which has been finely bound in recent full dark blue morocco leather, spines with five raised bands, gilt. Red title and name labels, gilt. Spines with lettering and rampant lion device stamped in gilt. Single gilt ruled borders on boards. All edges gilt. Fine. A fantastic presentation of this important set.

J. Johnson, John Nichols and Son, R. Baldwin ...... London. 1803. FIRST PRINTING OF THIS EDITION. 24 volumes. 6mo. (6.4 x 4.1 inches). Frontis portrait of Swift in volume one. Offsetting front frontis to the title page. Finely bound in contemporary attractive full black straight grained morocco bindings. Spines with two wide and one narrow raised bands, lettered and decorated in gilt. The compartments are fully decorated in gilt. Boards with single ruled line border around a decorative floral roll, gilt. Board edge corners with multiple gilt ruled lines. Floral gilt roll to the turn ins. Beige coloured silk endpapers with gilt tooled Greek key roll around edges and floral corner pieces. All edges gilt. A little rubbing to the extremities of some volumes but overall a very good fresh and highly attractive set of early 19th century leather bindings.

Lisbon, Na Offic. Patr. de Francisco Luiz Ameno [first volume]; Na Of. Patr. de Francisco Luiz Ameno [second and third volumes], 1784.. First Edition in Portuguese. 3 volumes in 1. 8°, slightly later crimson morocco (only the very slightest wear, consisting of a corner minimally bumped), smooth spine richly gilt with olive green morocco lettering piece and short title lettered gilt, covers with elaborate gilt borders, "Amizade // 1802" lettered gilt within smaller gilt frame on front, small circular gilt vignette on rear, edges of covers double ruled in gilt, edges of head and foot of spine milled gilt, marbled endleaves, all text block edges gilt. Same woodcut vignette on all three title pages. Woodcut headpiece and small initial on p. 5 of first volume. Typographical tailpiece on p. 248 of first volume. Typographical headpiece and small woodcut initial on p. 3 of second volume. Small typographical tailpiece on p. 117 of third volume. In very fine condition. 248 pp., (2 ll.); 205, (3); 117, (3)… Read More

Houghton Mifflin, 1892. First Thus. Leather Binding. Fine. A simply stunning set in magnificent bindings. The 9 originals volumes have been bound in 18 by the Riverside Press bindery (stamped at front). The bindings are a rich, vibrant red 3/4 morocco over marbled boards, the spines have raised bands and elegant gilt tiling, the top edges are gilt, and the endpapers are marbled, other edges are uncut. This is a fine, crisp set with only the slightest hints of wear. The set is illustrated with photogravures and steel engravings, and each of the 9 original volumes (Parts I of each of these paired volumes), have hand-colored frontispieces (9 in all). This is copy #174 of 750 numbered sets, printed on heavy handmade paper. This set has outstanding shelf presence.

London: Elliot Stock, 1898. A superb example of a vellucent binding. Cedric Chivers (1853 -1929) of Bath revived the technique of painting under vellum. Chivers would execute his paintings on paper which was covered with a translucent skin to form the binding, The covers were then lightly tooled with gold. It is rare to find such a finely preserved fine binding. Signed by Chivers. In 'Days and Hours in a Garden', 19th century Scotish artist and writier, Eleanor Vere Boyle (1825 -1916) takes us through the months of the year, the cherry blossoms, the rooks, the wild ivy etc. etc., reminiscent of a modest walled-garden 'Walden' by Thoreau. VIII MAY "There have been just one or two sweet days, when the white Cherry orchards shone softly against the sky of serenest blue; days when we did not but revel in the joyous present, forgetting quite that ever it could be that "rough winds do shake the darling buds of May" Octavo, vellucent binding, top edge gilt, frontispiece, small woodcut illustrations… Read More

Fred De Fau & Company. New York. 1902. LIMITED EDITION. One of 1,000 numbered sets, this number 942. 10 volumes. 8vo. (7.7 x 5.5 inches). Finely bound by Brentanos in contemporary half tan morocco. Each spine with five raised bands, decorated with gilt piping. Compartments multi ruled and lettered in gilt and with blind tooled centre decorations. Marbled paper on boards. Gold on grey marbled endpapers. Top edges gilt, the others untrimmed and a few gatherings still unopened. Illustrated with decorative head and tail pieces, vignettes in the text and multiple full page black and white illustrations by F. S. Coburn throughout. Each frontis plate protected with a printed descriptive tissue guards. Title pages printed in red and black. Pages nice and clean throughout. There is some minor bumping and rubbing to the corners of the bindings and a couple of small scratches to the lower board of volume 9 but overall this is a near fine, handsome set in excellent condition that looks wonderful on the shelf.

London: Printed for Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, 1810. Finely bound by Wood of London in early 20th c., half red morocco over red buckram boards, tasteful gilt decorations back, marbled end papers, top edge gilt. xcv, (1), 211, (1 ads) pp. RARE, this early translation into English is the third, after William Fowler in the 1590s and Edward Dacres in 1640. In the Introduction Byerley makes the connection between Napoleon and Machiavelli (" shewing the close analogy between the principles of Machiavelli and the actions of Buonaparte") [from title cont.]. A Fine copy, handsomely bound by a distinguished London binder. Oddly, OCLC lists the translator's name as John Scott Ripon, in contradiction to the title page"By J. Scott Byerley". . First Byerley Translation . Half Morocco. Near Fine/No Jacket, As Issued. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.

Hamburg 1883-1885, : Verlag von Otto Meissner , 1883. xxiii, (1), 808, xxvii, 526 pages. Two volumes, The 3rd revised edition of the first volume of Das Kapital , edited by Friedrich Engels after the death of Karl Marx , with First Edition of the second volume of Kapital, edited by Engels and published 1885. .Newly rebound in half maroon faux leather over red linen boards, spine embossed similar to the original, new parchment end papers, the title and final pages of both volumes now ensconced in rice paper due to brittle paper. The faint embossed stamp of Indianapolis Public Library at title pages, also stamped Indianapolis Public Library bottom edge of page blocks, pencil gift markings at copyright pages, no other markings, internally clean, bright and unmarked. RARE early printing (third revised edition) of the first volume and a 1st Ed. of the second volume of this foundational work of materialist philosophy, a towering economic critique of the 19th century. . Half Faux Leather. Very Good… Read More

George Allen. London. 1894. FIRST HUGH THOMSON EDITION. 8vo. (7.6 x 5.4 inches). Fully illustrated throughout with 101 fine engravings by Thomson. Several of the illustrations (about half of them) have been finely hand coloured by a skilled hand. A beautiful copy of the book, bound in an attractive early fine leather binding of half red morocco by Palmer, Howe and Company of Manchester, with their blind stamp on the front blank free endpaper. Spine with raised bands, the compartments ruled in blind, and decorated and lettered in gilt. Marbled paper on boards. Top edge gilt, the others untrimmed. Marbled endpapers. A fine copy of the scarce first Thomson edition in an attractive leather binding. --- Hugh Thomson illustrated this work for George Allen publishers before going on to illustrate the other Austen books for Macmillan & Co. -- More photos available on request.